Should we be worried about Oracle Park’s declining attendance?

There are no bad seats in Oracle Park.

Absolutely none.

TJ Macias

In section 302, high up within the sempiternal crisp sea air that manages to somehow seep into your blood whether you want it to or not, you can see the delicate alpenglow of the sky reflect off the water of McCovey Cove if you turn your head to the right. Directly in front of you, the Bay Bridge, marked by blithe unconcern, stretches and almost disappears into the horizon. At night, the headlights of cars flicker and fade as the water below the bridge turns a deep and almost pearl-like ebony as the city lights ricochet in an almost dancing manner. To your left, the tops of the buildings peeking out from behind the NL West standings flags as they too dance in the same essence as the bay water. And, of course, you have the diamond below you.

Interestingly enough? These particular seats are considered the cheap ones that start at six dollars (depending on the series) on Stubhub.

You read that right. Six bucks.

Despite the cost, something strange is happening within the walls of the newly named Oracle Park: Attendance is dwindling.

Sure, if you squint real hard, that chart doesn’t look that scary, right?

Oh boy, then you’re gonna hate the 100-acre heck out of this one.

Allow me to cut to the chase: the San Francisco Giants have been playing about as well as….well, me playing the Rainbow Road track in Mariokart after a bottle of wine. It doesn’t help that the Arizona Diamondbacks just took out the broom in order to sweep the Giants under the refrigerator at home.

The Giants are tap dancing at the bottom of the NL West and are 13.5 games back of the leading Los Angeles Dodgers, so it should come as no shock that attendance has dropped significantly this season. The thing is, attendance has been slowly dipping over the last few seasons, but not enough to sound any alarms. And why’s that? Because the Giants still rank 10^th in the MLB average attendance.

Sure, the sights and sounds from the so-called nosebleed sections of the park are more attractive than what’s happening on the field currently, but the fans are still flooding in enough to crack the top 10. It’s only natural that attendance numbers can vary, especially during a couple rebuilding seasons, and scary charts aren’t going to keep fans from surfing through the amazing ticket deals (nabbing a seat for less than 10 bucks where you can see the team AND the entire San Francisco bay where you can’t tell where the cerulean sky ends and the sapphire salt water begins? Yes please.)

Just be sure to bring a jacket.